Move over Rockefeller Center with its towering Norwegian spruce.
One of the most poignant seasonal displays is a humble 18-foot tree hidden in Central Park.
Every holiday season for nearly the past 40 years, a Hinoki false cypress in the depths of the park comes alive. It’s decorated with hundreds of ornaments memorializing beloved pets with pictures and heartfelt messages.
“I see you through the pines. Roam free and unencumbered,” reads an ornament with a picture of a terrier named Scout.
Another bears a photo of a gray lop-eared rabbit named Milo Lee and the message, “We will miss your daily nose rubs, rocking you back and forth like a baby, your happy sounds when you get treats.”
It’s a “cathartic place, but it’s also a place of great joy and celebration, too,” said Larry Closs, an Upper West Sider who acts as an “ambassador” for the memorial, which is known as the Furever Tree.
Around Thanksgiving each year, Closs, a documentarian, and Marianne Larsen, a “semi-retired” interior decorator who’s “pushing 70,” take hundreds of carefully preserved ornaments out of storage and hang them from the tree, with the help of some “elves.”
Some date back to the late 80s.
Larsen has been acting as the “tree keeper” for roughly twenty years. She took the reins from retired tree founders, Jason Reddock and Nicki Gallasa, a pair of pet-loving theater friends.
The unwitting duo started the tradition in 1986 when they dressed up the evergreen with red velvet bows and photos of their deceased dogs.
“It’s happy and sad — but that’s the point of a memorial, isn’t it?” Larsen said.
When she first started caring for the memorial tree, there were just 50 or 100 ornaments. Now, there are nearly 2,000 as word about it has spread.
But its location remains unknown to most and the tree keeps a low profile.
It has only a sporadically updated Facebook page and a simple website, neither of which give its exact location. Those who know where it is keep it close to the heart so as not to spoil it.
“After 40 years, it’s still a secret — it’s part of the mystique,” said Closs. “As a New Yorker, I love a good secret, a good mystery.”
The cat lover grew up dreaming of becoming a veterinarian and first visited the tree six years ago.
“I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it was,” said Closs, who has ornaments memorializing three of his late cats. “And I still am. When the sun is glinting on those ornaments and they’re all dancing in the wind, it is so beautiful.”
He visits the tree nearly every morning and afternoon to make sure all the ornaments are OK in the elements and that the tree is healthy
Larsen also visits almost daily. A few years back, she bought a lamination machine to repair and preserve ornaments.
Last Saturday, Annabella Cannarella, 89, was one of many to stop by the tree.
She makes a point of walking across town with her cane every day to see the tree. She pays her regards to ornaments for her friends’ pets and also three of her own late cats.
“People ask me to say hello to their Ruby and Sam and Lumpy the cat every day,” said Cannarella, who has been visiting the tree for two decades. “They trust me.”
Dylan Skinner, 26, and her fiance, Harry, also visited the tree on Saturday. They were there to hang an ornament for their beloved cat Harley, who died six months ago, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
“We’re trying to find ways to talk about her and keep her memory alive,” said Skinner, who lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Their decoration bore a picture of their black and white “angel” and the message “You left us far, far too soon. We miss you and your cuddles every day.”
“It’s emotional,” Harry told The Post as the pair embraced, taking in the solemnity of the moment.
Skinner added, “It’s wild to see so much love encapsulated in such a small space.”
